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LinuxWorld: Linux for S/390, Part 2: Building the iron penguin

"As Linux grew in popularity, the general population of computer
programmers and administrators became Linux literate. This was also
true in the S/390 world. There was even envy within the VM
community; Linux was developing in the way VM's proponents had
hoped their operating system would grow before IBM's Object Code
Only (OCO) and Object Code Maintained (OCM) policies, both
described in the first part of this series, crippled the
community's ability to contribute. The skill base, the technology,
and the application base within the Linux world are all highly
attractive to any organization that wishes to keep growing."

"My first attempt to do a Linux on S/390 port was back in
1997, but I had neither the time nor the gcc-compiler skills to get
very far. Fortunately, Linas Vesptas and David Pitts did (and still
do!) have such skills (and more) and were able to build the
infrastructure that enabled a port to happen."

"I joined Linas in early 1999, bringing my access to significant
S/390 resources (two-way SMPs, 725 MB memory, gigabytes of disk) to
help the effort. We were soon joined by several others, including
Rob Van Der Heij from the Netherlands and Peter Schulte-Stracke of
Germany."